Part I. Desiring Life
During these Aseres Yemei Teshuva, a few times each day, we approach the King and ask Him, יםƒּיַח¿לּנו≈ר¿כָז – Remember us for life, and יםƒּיַחַה ר∆פ≈ס¿ּבּינו≈ב¿ ָּ̇כ – inscribe us in the Book of Life. It’s one of the great themes that we’re busy with now. Included in our teshuva is that we want to find favor in Hashem’s eyes; that He should grant us kapparah not only for the Next World but for right now. We’re very interested in another year of life in this world. And therefore that will be our subject tonight, the subject of ‘life’.
We’ll introduce our talk with a possuk that everybody knows. Dovid Hamelech was talking to his listeners, his disciples, and he said, ı≈פָח∆ה ׁ ̆יƒ‡ָה יƒמ יםƒּיַח – Who among you is a man who wishes to live? (Tehillim 34:13). And so right away we hear something new: ‘Who wishes to live’. You hear that chiddush? You have to desire life.
I used to walk on Ocean Avenue and I saw a man, a frum man, sitting in front of an apartment house puffing on a cigarette. Every day I passed by he was smoking. So one day I walked over to him and said, “If you would stop smoking, you would live longer.”
So he said to me, “Who cares to live?”
When I heard that, I walked away from him.
It’s very dangerous to make such a reckless statement. Hakadosh Baruch Hu hears that. “You don’t care,” He says, “so why should I care?”
A Full Year Program
And so the first step in our program, the prerequisite to asking, is to be a chofetz chaim. You are not meant to be stoic, to be parveh about it. You have to desire life. Not only during these days—all the time, always. Always you have to ask Hashem, “Please, let me live!”
When you fall down by Tachanun, you’re begging for your life. Some people think you fall down to take a nap. Oh no! You’re crying out, יƒׁ ̆¿פַנ הָˆ¿לָח – Save my life! I want to continue living.
When you say in Maariv, ּינו≈‡ֹבוּוּינו≈ ̇‡≈ˆ רֹמו¿ׁ ̆ – Guard our going out and our coming in, םֹלוָׁ ̆¿לּו יםƒּיַח¿ל – for life and peace, you’re asking for life. You’re praying against accidents that might chalilah happen.
They're waiting on the road, these accidents. Here is a successful frum man, a college teacher. A young man, not fifty yet. He was driving home from his college in his car—a good driver, an experienced driver—all of a sudden a huge block of cement worked its way loose from the overpass and fell down and crushed him in his car. He died in a second.
There are sicknesses. All kinds of diseases, machlahs. So even though you're well. You're young—you're not even thinking of leaving this world yet. You have at least fifty years, you think, or sixty years; nothing to worry about. No! Here's a young man, a young fellow, in our neighborhood. He's not even forty. He dropped dead all of a sudden. Nobody expected it.
No Guarantees
Even if you’re still a child. There was a boy I knew, fourteen years old! He was in my class—I remember his name still. A healthy husky boy. He ran out to play. It was a hot day and after a while he went back in and drank some cold water from the faucet and he got pneumonia. Pneumonia from drinking water. And he fell dead the next day. He died.
Again and again we hear stories, and so, all the time we have to pray for life. Like Dovid Hamelech said, יƒׁ ̆¿פַנ יƒח¿ּ ̇ – Hashem, give me life (Tehillim 119:175). Always he was busy asking, “Let me live another day!” A regular Wednesday afternoon, Dovid davened for life. But when the Aseres Yemei Teshuva comes along, that’s when it’s most urgent, and so, you have to say it with all your heart. “Ay yah yay! Kasveinu b’sefer ha’chaim.” And if you can shed some tears, if you can weep, even better.
ּלוֲﬠ¿נƒנ ‡ֹל ֹ̇עוָמ¿ּ„ י≈רֲﬠַׁ ̆ – The gates of tears are never closed (Bava Metzia 59a). It’s important if possible.
So what, if your friend, the one standing next to you, thinks you’re overdoing it? No matter! You have to mean business! You're like a beggar standing in the doorway, pleading, “Please, Hashem, write me in the Book of Life,”
The King Grants Life
Now, if you don’t beg, if you don’t weep, then it’s one of two things. It could be you don't care for life—you’re not a chofetz chaim. But it could be you do, only that you think it'll come anyhow. It came last year and so it’ll come again. He thinks it’ll come by eating vitamins, by jogging. Well, you know there's a man who wrote a book all about jogging for life. He dropped dead while jogging. And so if you think it will come from somewhere else, that’s a very grave error.
And so we shout to the King, “יƒׁ ̆¿פַנ יƒח¿ּ ̇ – I want to live!” With all your koach ask Hashem for life. “I know that You’re the only address! You, Hashem, are the One Who gives life, and so I’m begging You.”
Pray by Action
But it’s more than just calling out to Hashem to give you life. Because asking sincerely means that you put your money where your mouth is—you do things that will keep you alive. Otherwise you’re not calling out in truth. It says יוָ‡¿רֹ ̃ לָכ¿ל ה׳ בֹרוָ ̃ – When is Hashem close to all those who call out to Him? When does He want to hear your prayers? ̇∆מ¡‡∆בּהוֻ‡ָר¿ ̃ƒי ר∆ׁ ֲ̆‡ לֹכ¿ל – Only if you call out in truth (ibid. 145:18). It has to be backed up with action.
If a man puts himself into danger by running across a traffic street—he wants to come to shul on time in order to pray for life—that man has already announced that he's not sincere. If you’re a reckless fellow, so that’s not ‘calling out in truth.’ It’s not sincere.
And so, the man who smokes but he claims that he wants to live—and he prays too—he’s not serious. And even if he’ll say, “Oh no, of course I want to live,” that’s not enough. Because it’s not enough to say it—you have to stop smoking too. Otherwise, you don’t really care; the fact that you’re puffing away on the cigarette demonstrates you don't care to live.
Hashem says, “Look, you're taking a pack of cigarettes and it says openly on every pack a warning from the Surgeon General that smoking is dangerous, that it causes cancer, it causes this and that. And you're ignoring that and you puff away, so what do you want Me to do for you? You're not serious; you’re not a chafetz chaim.”
Sincere Desire
And so even if we're constantly asking for life, but there's a very big question about our sincerity if we take risks with our lives. It’s necessary to back up your desire to live with action, by showing that you want life, by taking care of your life.
You know, Rav Yisrael Salanter when he was ill he went to a professor of medicine in Germany, in Koenigsburg. Later, the professor told someone that he has thousands of patients but not one was as careful in carrying out his directions as this rabbi. Isn't that a remarkable thing? Rav Yisrael Salanter was most medakdek, most careful, in following the directives of the doctor.
The answer is he was sincere when he asked for life and so he did everything necessary in order to maintain his existence.
Safety First
And therefore included in Kasveinu b’sefer hachaim is listening to what the Torah tells us about the subject of staying alive: ָך∆ ̇י≈בּב יםƒמָּ„ יםƒׂ ָ̆ ̇ ‡ֹל – Don't put blood into your house (Devarim 22:8). Don’t do anything that could lead to blood being spilled. You must take every precaution that there shouldn't be any accidents in your house.
Like the Gemara says on that possuk, ֹו ̇י≈ּבּךֹו ̇¿ּב ַﬠּעו¿ר םָּלֻס „יƒמֲﬠַי ‡ֹּל∆ׁ ̆ – You shouldn't have a rickety ladder in your house. If you have a wobbly ladder, take a hammer and smash it, right away when you get home tonight. Smash it, put it out with the garbage, and tomorrow buy a good new ladder in the hardware store.
If there are things on the stairs that can send a person for a ride, that’s also a wobbly ladder. If you have frayed electric cords, get rid of them right away. Call the electrician! Don't take any chances. Desiring life means you don’t want to take any chances; you’re going to take all the necessary steps that you shouldn’t get burned up. You don’t go out without a coat in cold weather. You don’t sit in front of the fan and let the draft blow on you and catch a cold. Otherwise you're not a chofetz chaim.
The youth who like to drive cars on the highways recklessly, they don't care. If they cared, they wouldn't go speeding. Someone who means it when he says kasveinu b’sefer hachaim won’t take risks on the road when driving. He wears a seatbelt when he goes in the car. He’s especially careful when he crosses the street. You have to look back and forth on both sides and take your time before you cross. You lose a minute and save a life.
Planning for Winter Vacation
Other things too. I know that you won’t listen to me—you think I’m being excessive—but I’ll say it anyhow. Someone who means business when he’s davening for life in Tishrei, so when January comes around he won’t go skiing either.
“Oh, Rabbi Miller,” he tells me, “you’re overreacting. It’s not really dangerous to go skiing. I go every winter. Nothing ever happened.” Well, not everybody gets killed, that’s true. It’s like the man who is sitting outside of his windowsill, three stories up, washing the windows. So somebody yells at him, “It’s dangerous!”
“I never got killed yet,” he says. That’s a good argument. He never got killed yet. He wants it to happen a lot of times before he’s convinced.
You know, in the laws of the city of New York there is a provision that every house has to have exits, proper exits. Now why do you need it? Because in case of a fire, you should be able to escape. But how frequently do fires happen? In a block where people ordinarily have lived for many years, it’s possible there never was a single fire. So isn’t it excessive to worry about it?
The answer is that even the stupid people who run the city of New York understand that if once in many blocks a fire takes place, it’s a lesson that we have to tighten the fire regulations everywhere. We don’t wait for it to happen in every house. Life is too important.
Common Sense Safety
And therefore, the fact that so many people are crippled by skiing, should be enough reason for common sense people to avoid it. The fact that a number of scuba divers have never surfaced anymore should be enough for people to avoid it. The fact that a girls’ group went for an outing to the top of a mountain last year and one girl fell down means that mountain climbing is a dangerous proposition. She had to have twelve operations before she got well again. And so we avoid dangerous places. That’s included in asking for life!
You want fun? Go jogging on the mall outside, on Ocean Parkway. It doesn’t cost any money and it’s much safer. By day of course, not by night. There’s a lot of fun available without risking one’s life.
And so, our first commitment of the new year has to be, “Hashem, You give me another year of life and I’ll guard it. I’ll be more careful than last year.” That’s the first teshuva! I’m going to take care of the gift You give me.”
And each time I keep that in mind, every time I’m careful with my life, that’s part of our tefillah. That’s how you back up your tefillah: “You see Hashem! I want to live! I’m a chofetz chaim.”
